You may have seen the bumper sticker, "Live simply so that others may simply live." It is inspiring and a noble aspiration to decrease consumption habits, forgoing shopping as entertainment, the credit economy, and lots of plastic waste. "Reduce" is the first "R" in the mantra of the environmental movement to "reduce, reuse, recycle." But how do you know whether your effort is making a difference for people and the planet?

I began to think differently about this after viewing "No Impact Man." I was drawn into the drama of the Manhattan writer's ever more austere experiments. I chuckled at the cooperation or resistance of his wife. I was charmed by his toddler daughter's cheerfully game participation and was curious to see how long they could manage without a Starbucks fix. Eventually, though, the main character of the documentary, Colin Beavan, interacts with a man who teaches him how to raise his own food in a community garden. This man challenges him on a level that he had yet to imagine challenging himself, even though he had gone to great lengths to leave behind American consumerism and waste. The challenge was something to the effect of this, "what is creating all this? What is creating all the stuff and all the waste? It's capitalism. And yet, if you were challenging that, do you think you would be invited to speak on all these talk shows?"

At that moment, I reflected on the changes I had made recently to lower my own environmental impact. I'm concerned about global climate change and what will happen to the majority of people on earth as our food systems suffer shocks not previously experienced in history. This awareness led me to work hard to decrease my footprint. And yet, it occurred to me that if my intention was to leave the earth and other important resources for future generations, I would not only have to give up some share in earth's gifts, I would also need to do something else as well.

For the dictum, "live simply so that others may simply live," to really work, you will not only need to decrease your carbon footprint and reduce your waste. You will also need to ensure that what you have tried to spare is not usurped by those who will despoil it, privatize it, or make slaves to and of it. If we don't act to prevent this, the ones who end up with the "money left on the table" will not be the earth's poor, but instead, it will be those who are swift and powerful. Though well-intentioned, we will have unwittingly sacrificed only to enrich the already wealthy.

While it may slow capitalism down to slow consumption, it will not change social and property arrangements that enable the powerful to claim and hold resources. The more desperate people become, the more they will be willing to pay for the resources on which survival depends.

We must take more action to help "we the people" to obtain and retain access to a commons. We must protect and claim for people, clean water, health care, adequate housing, and develop plural, resilient food supplies. We need to use government to tax the rich, invest in sustainable energy, food diversity, sustainable business, health care and other forms of aid to human needs. At the same time, we can build our local communities to be more resilient and independent of shocks to larger systems. Resilience will need to include measures by government to create more sustainable, more equitable resources and local efforts can create pockets of resilience that remain functional which can help other localities hit hard by climatic disturbances.

What is now at stake is larger than philosophical differences between party politics. It isn't simply a class war between the current rich and the current poor, but a war on the future of humankind. We must build a more equitable and environmentally wise economy. We need to consider what happens to jobs as the unsustainable, dirty economy collapses and be prepared with opportunities and tasks that will replace those losses. We can handle the transition responsibly or irresponsibly, but transition we must. Will we allow the powerful to lead everyone to annihilation or will we do this together as a nation, as a global community, and as local communities?